


Countdown

by angellwings



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Love Confessions, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:57:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7714024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob and Cassandra are trapped in no win situation. For Librarians Shipathon Jassandra Week!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Countdown

They were trapped in a room with a bomb. 

They had no cell signal to call anyone. Jacob and Cassandra’s combined knowledge of mechanics and engineering proved to be of no use. They’d completed the steps that they thought would disarm the bomb but was still counting down. The room itself resembled something out of The Terminator or War Games. They were in a control room of some kind with panels covered in dials and multicolored buttons and large reels of film or tape. None of which were actually functional.

Yet the bomb seemed real.

Cassandra explained that whatever was causing this was similar to the magic behind the Libris Fabula. It was feeding off of the stories or fantasies inside one person’s head which appeared to consist of science fiction films and television shows.

The countdown was reaching the end. 

They couldn’t get in touch with any of the others and the room they were in had a door that locked behind them.

“It’s still counting down,” Cassandra said with a gulp. “Why is it still counting down? That last wire should have disarmed it!”

“Cassandra,” Jacob said softly. Before he could continue she spoke again.

“I mean I’ve seen something like this before and that is exactly how you’re supposed to disarm it! We did everything right. That countdown clock should have stopped!” She said frantically. “Why didn’t it stop?”

He couldn’t see what she was seeing but he could tell she was visualizing something. Her eyes were moving wildly and her hands were flipping through calculations.

“Is there anything else you can think to do?” He asked her.

“We’ve tried everything I can think to do!” She told him. “And according to what I remember what we did should have worked!”

“It must be the spell,” Jacob told her. “Whatever magic this is doesn’t follow any one set of rules.”

She kept trying to calculate and visualize. She was purposefully losing herself in her spell. She hadn’t been this far gone in a long time. Her brow furrowed, she winced in pain, and blood trickled from her nose. She was still standing though. He could see her wobbling and shaking.

“No, no, no,” he said as he rushed to her side and placed himself in her personal space. “Cassie, let it go. You’ve done all you can. There ain’t any reason you should retreat into your head now, sweetheart.”

“But—there has to be—this isn’t making sense—it should make sense. We can’t—this isn’t how—not today. It isn’t supposed to be today!” She muttered before a pained cry escaped her. He saw her muscles go slack before she started to fall and he was prepared to catch her. He always prepared to catch her even if he hadn’t needed to in months.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay,” he said softly as he shifted her against him and picked her up. He set her down in front of the nearest wall and leaned her back against it. He sat down next to her and then handed her the bandana he kept in his pocket. She quietly accepted it and pressed it to her nose.

“I—I’m sorry.”

“Cass, you have nothing to be sorry for,” he told her with a shake of his head. “If I had your brain I would have done the exact same thing.”

“There’s nothing else we can do,” Cassandra said hopelessly as she dabbed her nose. “We have no more options.”

He sighed and nodded. “Just another Tuesday.”

“No, it’s not,” she told him. “Any other Tuesday we’d find one other brilliant option. This Tuesday all we can do is sit here and hope the others figure out how to stop the spell. They’ve got 70 seconds.”

“70 seconds?” He asked as he ran a hand through his hair and glanced at Cassandra nervously. “Cassie, this…this isn’t the moment I always pictured that I would—hell, I thought I’d actually ask you out to dinner first but we don’t exactly have time for me to do this right.”

She turned toward him slowly. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Other than the bomb counting down?” He asked with a dark chuckle. “Nothing. I just think you should know that I—“ he stopped and turned to look at her in her beautiful blue eyes. “I love you. If we’re gonna die then I want you to know that.”

“Oh,” she said with a small gasp. “Jacob.”

He looked away from her and shook his head. “You don’t have to say it back I just had to—“

“I love you too.”

His head turned sharply and his eyes slammed into hers at the sound of those words. “Oh, thank God,” he said with sigh of relief before he crossed the space between them and covered her lips with his. If this was his last moment. He wasn’t going to waste it.

Her hands went to either side of his face and she returned his kisses just as eagerly. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap. The slow ticking of the countdown in the background added urgency and intensity to their kisses. He kept trying to block it out but it seemed so loud. Too loud to ignore.

Then suddenly…

He couldn’t hear it any more.

He thought maybe he’d died and the explosion was too quick for him to notice.

“Wait,” Cassandra said as she pulled out of the kiss. “It—it stopped. The countdown stopped at one.”

He shifted her off of his lap and then helped her stand up. He noticed she didn’t let go of his hand as they walked over to check on the bomb.

“Oh my god. It’s stuck at one!” She exclaimed.

His brow furrowed and he glanced around the room as he thought. It looked like they were on a set. This whole scenario was based on science fiction films and television…

A bomb planted somewhere on a ship was a classic television cliché and more often than not the heroes stopped the bomb at—

“Of course!” Jacob exclaimed with a laugh. “On television the bomb always stops at one!”

“I should have known,” Cassandra said with a look of realization and a laugh of her own. “Oh God, that’s why it didn’t make sense! That’s why nothing worked!”

She clapped and hopped excitedly for a moment before she launched herself at him. Her lips covered his for the second time, but this time it was celebratory and not desperate. She stopped suddenly and then pulled back with an apologetic look.

“Oh, god—I didn’t even think—“ she stopped and then gave him a reluctant look. “I know we were about to die, or thought we were, so if you wanted to pretend that we didn’t—that we never well, you know…I’d understand.”

“Cassandra,” Jacob said with a chuckle and a grin. “I’m not pretending anything. I’m glad I said it. You?”

She beamed at him and nodded. “Yes! I’ve wanted to tell you that for so long but I never thought—I never thought you’d actually—“

“Feel the same way?” He asked her knowingly. “Believe me, I can relate.”

The door unlocked and opened on it’s own and they suddenly remembered they were on a case.

“Come on, let’s go catch up with the others,” he said as he held out a hand for her to take. “Ready?”

She smiled warmly at him and then nodded with a determined expression. “Yes.” She took his hand and kept a tight hold of it as they ran off to find everyone else. “Case first, dinner later.”

“Dinner like a date?” He asked with a grin while they ran.

“Well, If I love you then I think I should date you, don’t you?” She asked him with a wink and a smile.

They’d better wrap up this case quick. He had a date to get to.


End file.
